Early life and family

Chiranjeevi was born on 22 August 1955[1][7] as Siva Sankara Varaprasad to Konidela Anjana Devi[8] and Konidela Venkata Rao[9] in Mogalthur, a small village near Narsapur.[8]
He was quite interested in acting at a very young age. After completion
of his high school, he did his Intermediate in C. S. R. Sharma College
at Ongole.[10] After graduating with a degree in commerce, Chiranjeevi moved to Chennai and joined the Madras Film Institute in 1976 to seek a career in acting.[11] Since his family worshipped Anjaneya, a Hindu God, his mother advised him to take the screen name of "Chiranjeevi".[12]

Political career: 2008–present

In 2008, Chiranjeevi started Praja Rajyam, a political party in the state of Andhra Pradesh.[28] At the launch, he stated that social justice was the main agenda of his party.[29] In the 2009 general elections the party won 18 seats in the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly.[30] He was elected a Member of the State Assembly from Tirupati.[31] His party recently stood for a united Andhra Pradesh and opposed separate statehood for Telangana.[32]
Meanwhile, two members of Telangana Advocates JAC filed criminal case
against Chiranjeevi and 12 other leaders of his party for opposing
separation of Telengana.
The advocates—A. Srinivas and B. Narasimha Reddy—filed their petition
before 17th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court. They said
the PR leaders, in their manifesto during 2009 State Assembly elections,
extended support to Telangana.[33]Praja Rajyam's
launch in Tirupathi He gave 104 assembly seats to Back ward caste
candidates and 10 seats to SC and ST candidates in General seats out of
294 assembly seats.[clarification needed] His party won 18 MLA seats with 18% vote share.[citation needed]
He stood both in Tirupati and in Palakollu Constituency as MLA in the 2009 general elections, winning in Tirupati but losing in Palakollu.[34][35]

On 6 Feb 2011, Chiranjeevi merged the 30-month-old Praja Rajyam party with Indian National Congress.[30][36]
But he merged his party PRAJA RAJYAM in congress on 6th Febravary, 2011
after two weeks of back talks with Sonia Gandhi, the president of the
Indian National Congress, which feared the no confidence motion in the
state assembly in the wake of the emergence of Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR
Congress and the stronghold of Telangana agitation. After the merge of
his party into Congress, he was by and large neglected for a long time
and ultimately given the Rajya Sabha seat on march 29th 2012. He took
oath as Rajya Sabha member on April 3, 2012. Read More>>

On October 2, 1998, he founded the Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust
(CCT), which includes Chiranjeevi Blood and Eye Banks. It is the state's
largest recipient of blood and eye donations. The trust has made over
68,000 blood donations through and 1,414 eye donations.[2][37][38]
The Blood Bank of the CCT helped over 80,000 people and the Eye Bank
has helped about 1000 people in the state of Andhra Pradesh since its
opening. Around 3.5 lakh people have pledged their eyes to CCT so far,
giving 1600 people eyesight through CCT. CCT has also won the "Best
Voluntary Blood Bank Award" by the AP State Government for the past 4
years.[39][40] On June 10, 2006, the then President of India, Abdul Kalam, inaugurated the Chiranjeevi Charitable Foundation (CCF) at the Jubilee Hills Check post in Hyderabad.[citation needed]
Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust has crossed the one lakh mark in
collecting blood and more than 96,000 people have been helped with blood
by this blood bank.[41]
After allegations made against the Blood Bank and Eye Bank,[42][43]
the state government of AP constituted a high-level committee to look
into the allegations. The committee worked under the guidance of the
project director of AP State AIDA Control Society, comprising experts
from finance and technical fields, verified records pertaining to the
collection and disposal of blood samples, blood grouping, screening,
sterilisation, medical waste disposal, camps conducted, blood expiry, quality control, store room, record room and purchase of equipment. Read More>>